Ataturk
...and first President of the Republic of Turkey. He was born in the Ottoman city of Selânik (now Thessaloniki in Greece), where his birthplace is the Turkish Consulate and is also preserved as a museum. In accordance with the then prevalent Turkish custom, he was given the single name Mustafa. His father, Ali Riza (Efendi) was a customs officer who died when Mustafa was a child, his mother was Zübeyde (Hanim).
Ataturk's Early career
Mustafa studied at the military secondary school in Selânik, where he was given the additional name Kemal ("perfection") by his math teacher in recognition of his academic brilliance. As Mustafa Kemal he entered the military academy at Monastir (now Bitola) in 1895. He graduated as a lieutenant in 1904 and was posted to Damascus. He soon joined a secret society of reform-minded officers called Vatan (Fatherland) and became an active opponent of the Ottoman regime. In 1907 he was posted to Selânik and joined the Committee of Union and Progress commonly known as the Young Turks.
The Young Turks seized power from the Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1908, and Kemal, became a senior military figure. In 1911 he went to the province of Libya to take part in the defence against the Italian invasion. During the first part of the Balkan Wars Kemal was stranded in Libya and unable to take part, but in July 1913 he returned to Constantinople and was appointed commander of the Ottoman defences of the Gallipoli area on the coast of Thrace. In 1914 he was appointed military attache in Sofia, partly to remove him from the capital and its political intrigues.
Ataturk as War Commander
When the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of Germany, Kemal was posted to Rodosto (now Tekirdag) on the Sea of Marmara. His area of command again included the Gallipoli area, and he was thus the Ottoman commander against the invading allied forces...
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